The Dallas Mavericks announced today that they have acquired forward Greg Smith from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for the rights to Tadija Dragicevic.

The Rockets waived Smith late last season, because he was injured and they wanted a healthy option for the playoffs. The Bulls signed him to a minimum contract through next season.

Smith, 23, showed flashed with Houston. He deserves a roster spot and could develop into handing a bigger role.

For the Bulls, this is more salary slashing in line with the Anthony Randolph trade – clearing room for Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic. At least this time, they didn’t have to add draft picks. Dragicevic, 28, was drafted No. 53 in 2008. It’s unlikely he ever joins the NBA.

The Bulls also have the Trail Blazers’ second rounders in 2015 and 2016.

Milovan Rakovic, going to the Bulls, was drafted with the final pick in the 2007 draft. He fills the requirement that both teams trade something, and it’s unlikely the 29-year-old Serbian ever joins the NBA.

I suppose it’s possible the Bulls liked Randolph, and their plans changed since. Maybe they didn’t anticipate needing to dump and do now to sign the clearly more-valuable Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic.

I doubt that, though. More likely, accepting Randolph – who’s owed $1,825,359 next season – was part of the cost of the trade.

For the Magic, this is the advantage of preserving cap room. A couple extra picks always come in handy for a rebuilding team.

Derrick Rose, whose play varies from MVP-caliber to non-existent due to injury, is the Bulls’ most important player and biggest X-factor.

Carmelo Anthony knows this, which is why he wanted to see Rose in action. Assuming Melo is satisfied – if he’s not, likely none of this matters – Taj Gibson and Carlos Boozer become essential to any negotiations between Melo, the Bulls and Knicks.

But the Knicks, according to sources, will not cooperate with any plan that involves them taking back Boozer.

It’s no wonder the Bulls and Melo, if he signs there, want to keep Gibson in Chicago. He’s a very good player – a top-shelf defender and rebounder and, at times, aggressive scorer. He makes his team better.

He also makes $8 million next season, a roadblock to Chicago creating enough cap room to sign Melo.

If they amnesty Boozer, waive the fully unguaranteed contracts of Ronnie Brewer, Mike James andLouis Amundson, renounce all their free agents and trade Mike Dunleavy, Anthony Randolph, Tony Snell and Greg Smith without receiving any salary in return – the Bulls could offer Melo a contract that starts at $16,284,762 and is worth $69,535,934 over four years based on the projected salary cap.

That’s far short of the max salary – $22,458,402 starting, $95,897,375 over four years – Melo could get signing outside New York, and it might be difficult to move some of those contracts (Randolph and maybe even Dunleavy) without offering a sweetener.

The bigger challenge would be convincing Melo to leave more than $26 million on the table – and that’s not even considering how much more the Knicks could offer him.

The Bulls could bump the offer to a max deal by also dealing Gibson without returning salary, but Melo might not want to play in a Gibson-less Chicago. If Melo is going to the Bulls to win now, he knows Gibson is a big part of that.

Chicago could bypass this issue by arranging a sign-and-trade with the Knicks. Of course, that requires convincing New York to agree.

If Phil Jackson wants to take a hardline stance against sign-and-trading Melo, I could understand that. As you can see, the Bulls would have a difficult time keeping their core together while making space for Melo. Another prominent Melo suitor, the Rockets, could strip their roster to just Dwight Howard and James Harden, and they still wouldn’t have enough room below the projected cap to offer Melo his full max starting salary. By refusing to entertain sign-and-trades, Jackson might significantly diminish the odds Melo leaves the Knicks.

But if Jackson is willing to conduct a sign-and-trade, refusing to take Boozer is asinine.

Neither the Knicks nor Bulls need to enter negotiations under any illusions about what Boozer is. He’s a player with negative value whose expiring contract would be used only to make the deal’s finances work.

A simple trade of Boozer and one of Brewer, James or Amundson for Melo would allow Melo to receive his max starting salary. New York would have no obligation to Brewer/James/Amundson beyond the trade and none to Boozer beyond next season. Considering the Knicks don’t project to have cap space until 2015 anyway, Boozer wouldn’t interfere much, if at all.

Of course, New York would never go for that.

Brewer/James/Amundson is a worthless piece, and like I said before, Boozer has negative value. It’s up to the Bulls to tweak the deal to include other positive assets – future draft picks, Nikola Mirotic, Jimmy Butler, Tony Snell, Doug McDermott – that compensate the Knicks for both parting with Melo and accepting Boozer. Armed with all its own first rounders, a Kings’ first rounder if it falls outside the top 10 in the next three years and the right to swap picks with the Cavaliers outside the lottery next season, Chicago has the tools to create a tempting offer.

But to make the finances work – unless they include Gibson, whom Melo wants left on the team – the Bulls need to include Boozer in the trade.

Boozer is nothing more than a contract to make the deal work. Sure, he might give the Knicks a little interior and scoring and rebounding in the final year of his contract, but neither New York nor Chicago needs to value that when determining a fair trade. Boozer is a contract.

He’s also a contract who could be useful in another trade for the Bulls sometime before the trade deadline for the same reason he’s useful here. Expiring contracts grease the wheels of larger deals.

Why is Phil Jackson so opposed to this? Maybe he understands the situation and is just posturing. If so, it’s a little annoying, because it’s not necessary. The Bulls, who might just amnesty Boozer, understand his value.

If there’s more to this, and Jackson thinks Boozer’s mere presence would harm the Knicks, he could always tell Boozer not to report. That would still allow New York to trade Boozer later without risking him infecting the team with whatever Jackson believes Boozer carries. (That Boozer has fit in Chicago’s strong organizational culture suggests these fears are unwarranted.)

If Jackson is willing to discuss a sign-and-trade, he should listen to offers that include Boozer. The Bulls will surely add valuable assets in exchange.

But if Jackson flatly refuses and Melo still wants to sign in Chicago, he faces a dilemma – playing with with Gibson or making $26 million extra dollars over the next four years.

The 76ers traded Cory Jefferson, the 60th pick whom them acquired from the Spurs earlier in the night, to the Nets. Philadelphia’s return is unclear, because it would just be too easy to put a bow on this

The Denver Nuggets have struggled up front this season — opposing centers are shooting 50.6 percent against the Nuggets and teams are averaging 44.9 points a game in the paint against them, 25th in the NBA.

A big part of the reason for that is JaVale McGee has only played five games for them this season due to a stress fracture in his left leg.

McGee, 26, has been seeking further medical consultation on the injury, which hasn’t been able to heal properly this season, league sources said.

A final decision on his status could come in the next several days.

That sucks.

Denver has had terrible injury luck this season — Danilo Gallinari is out for the season after a second knee surgery, they lost Nate Robinson for the year and they really haven’t had McGee.

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The Nuggets have run their way to a 24-23 record, but in the West that makes them the 10 seed 3.5 games out of the playoffs. Up front J.J. Hickson, Anthony Randolph, Kenneth Faried and Timofey Mozgov have filled in but none of them are as big nor are they the dynamic athlete that McGee is.

McGee isn’t going anywhere, he is owed more than $23 million over the two seasons after this. Hopefully the Nuggets will be able to get him on the court next season.